Britain will become the gas “bridge” to Europe Business

“We could see UK terminals and the national transmission network being used as transit for gas entering Europe via the interconnectors.

“Growing concern over the security of gas supplies to Europe […] means that larger volumes of gas from alternative sources may be needed to fill EU storage in anticipation of winter.

National Grid, which owns Britain’s main gas pipelines and balances gas supplies, estimates exports to Europe are expected to reach 5.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) this summer.

This matches the five-year summer average to 2021, but is well above the 0.7bn cc exported last summer when cold weather and few LNG shipments to Britain meant that there was little surplus to sell.

The rise in exports this summer is expected to occur as a result of normal trading arrangements based on prices in Europe, as opposed to any request from European or UK authorities, and with the satisfaction of UK demand.

Paul Sullivan, head of future gas markets at National Grid, said: “The commercial chain is normal. Shippers will buy it in [the UK] then trade it through trade deals and it will flow over the interconnects.

The government said in its new energy security strategy published last week that the UK was a “key entry point into the EU for non-Russian gas supplies”.

Ministers are “working closely with the US on gas, in particular on how we can leverage UK LNG infrastructure to support European supply”, he added.

They are also “reviewing our infrastructure to ensure efficient gas flows between the UK, Europe and the global market”.

The United States has pledged to try to send an additional 15 billion cubic meters of gas to the EU this year to help wean it off Russian supplies.

Great Britain has three terminals where LNG can be converted back into gaseous form, in Wales and in Kent.

This means that large volumes of gas can be imported into Britain from the United States or elsewhere before being transported to Europe.

However, around 10-12% of the UK’s LNG supplies have come from Russia in recent years, accounting for around 3% of the UK’s total gas supply.

The government wants to reduce this and has banned Russian ships from UK ports, although some Russian gas can still pass as cargo on non-Russian ships.

Germany, which is one of the European countries most dependent on Russian gas, does not have terminals to convert LNG back into gaseous form.